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A Flurry in Stocks

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Brief overview

Albert dreads his arranged marriage to Eugénie d'Anglars while Monte Cristo quietly arranges a dinner around the family.

  1. The marriage is settled but nobody wants itAlbert calls Eugénie too rich for him, his mother dissents, and only his father's disappointment keeps him in it.
  2. Madame d'Anglars, not the Baron, plays the marketLucien says it is Madame d'Anglars who speculates, and that no one has any influence with her.
  3. Monte Cristo excludes the Morserfs on purposeHe invites the d'Anglars and Villeforts to Autouy but keeps Albert's family away so the dinner cannot look matrimonial.
Executive Summary AI
  • Albert de Morserf and Lucien de Bray call on Monte Cristo in the Champ-Élysée, Lucien sent as Madame d'Anglars' eyes to report on a man who gives away horses worth thirty thousand francs and takes a Greek slave wearing a million of money in diamonds to the opera.
  • Albert admits the match with Eugénie is more than ever a settled thing yet says Mademoiselle d'Anglars is too rich for him, that his mother dissents, and that the meeting postponed two months after his attack of indisposition falls due next week, though he is not yet twenty-one and Eugénie only seventeen.
  • Lucien calculates that the house of Danglars made three hundred thousand livres on Haiti bonds bought at 206 and sold at four hundred five before the price fell back to two hundred five, and Albert proposes Lucien feed the Baroness false news to cost her a hundred thousand francs as a lesson in prudence.
  • Monte Cristo says he will invite M. and Mme. d'Anglars and M. and Mme. de Villefort to his country-house at Autouy but deliberately exclude the Morserfs so the Saturday dinner does not look like a matrimonial meeting, and Albert gratefully accepts, inventing a seaside trip to Traport.
  • Refusing Albert's own dinner invitation, the Count proves a prior engagement through Baptistein: he receives Major Bartolomeo Cavalcanti and his son Andrea that evening, and afterwards orders Bertuccio to strip the Autouy hangings, leaving the red damask bedroom and the garden untouched.
Key Quote
“Mademoiselle d'Anglars is too rich for me, and that frightens me.”
— Albert de Morserf
Key Quote
“She will enrich you, and you will ennoble her.”
— Monte Cristo
Key Quote
“It is my mother who dissents.”
— Albert de Morserf

Transcript

0:00 CHAPTER LIV. chapter 54 A Flurry in Stocks Some days after this meeting, Albert de Morserf visited the Count of Monte-Cristo at his house
0:31 in the Champ-Élysée, which had already assumed that palace-like appearance which the Count's
0:36 princely fortune enabled him to give even to his most temporary residences. He came to renew the
0:43 thanks of Madame d'Anglars, which had already been conveyed to the
0:46 Count through the medium of a letter, signed Baron d'Anglars, née Hermine de Servio.
0:52 Albert was accompanied by Lucien de Bray, who, joining his friend's conversation,
0:57 added some passing compliments, the source of which the Count's talent for finesse easily
1:01 enabled him to guess. He was convinced that Lucien's visit was due to a double
1:06 feeling of curiosity, the larger half of which sentiment emanated from the Rue de la Chaussée
1:11 d'Antin. In short, Madame d'Anglars, not being personally able to examine in detail the domestic
1:18 economy and household arrangements of a man who gave away horses worth thirty thousand francs,
1:23 and who went to the opera with a Greek slave
1:25 wearing diamonds to the amount of a million of money, had deputed these eyes, by which she was
1:30 accustomed to see, to give her a faithful account of the mode of life of this incomprehensible
1:35 person. But the Count did not appear to suspect that there could be the slightest connection
1:40 between Lucian's visit and the curiosity of the Baroness.
1:44 You are in constant communication with the Baron d'Anglars?' the Count inquired of Albert
1:49 de Morserve.
1:51 "'Yes, Count, you know what I told you.'
1:53 "'All remains the same, then, in that quarter?'
1:56 "'It is more than ever a settled thing,' said Lucian, and considering that this remark
2:01 was all that he was at that time called upon to make, he adjusted the glass to his eye, and biting the top of his gold-headed cane, began to
2:09 make a tour of the apartment, examining the arms and the pictures.
2:13 Ah! said Montecristo, I did not expect that the affair would be so promptly concluded.
2:18 Oh, things take their course without our assistance.
2:21 While we are forgetting them, they are falling into their appointed order, and when again our attention is directed to them, we are surprised at the progress they
2:29 have made toward the proposed end. My father and M. d'Anglars served together in Spain,
2:34 my father in the army, and M. d'Anglars in the commissariat department. It was there that my
2:39 father, ruined by the revolution, and M. d'Anglars, who had never possessed any patrimony,
2:45 both laid the foundations of their different fortunes.'
2:48 "'Yes,' said Montecristo,
2:50 "'I think M. d'Anglars mentioned that in a visit which I paid him,
2:54 "'and,' continued he, casting a side-glance at Lucien,
2:57 "'who was turning over the leaves of an album,
2:59 "'Mademoiselle Eugénie is pretty. I think I remember that to be her name.'
3:04 "'Very pretty, replied Albert, or rather very beautiful, but of that style of beauty which
3:10 I do not appreciate. I am an ungrateful fellow. You speak as if you were already her husband.
3:16 Ah! returned Albert, in his turn looking around to see what Lucien was doing.
3:22 Really, said Montecristo, lowering his voice, "'you do not appear to me to be very enthusiastic on the subject of this marriage.'
3:29 "'Mademoiselle d'Anglars is too rich for me,' replied Morserve,

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